The Galilee is a magical part of Israel; the landscape resembles the English countryside or even Tuscany. The area holds a wide variety of attractions for visitors interested in history, religion, nature or culture. You could take one of the Touryourway Galilee tours and explore this wonderful part of Israel including the sacred city of Safed. Galilee tours can include visits to the Golan Heights which form a natural border between Syria and Israel and have the perfect climate and volcanic soil for vineyards, orchards and farms. Other Galilee tours concentrate on Christian sites including the places Jesus visited when he was preaching in the Galilee and based in Capernaum. Among the Christian locations visited on Galilee tours there is Nazareth; the Mount of Beatitudes; Capernaum; Tabgha (site of the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes) and the Sea of Galilee which lies at the heart of the Galilee. A popular stop for Christian tours to the north is at Yardenit, a site on the Jordan River where you can be baptized. John baptized Jesus in the River Jordan, perhaps not in this exact spot but certainly in this river. There are several coastal cities often included in Galilee tours like the Crusader city of Acre; the port city of Haifa and the excavated ancient Roman city of Caesarea. You could include a visit to the extreme northerly point of the county on the Lebanese border where there is a breathtaking labyrinth of white sea caves along the Mediterranean coastline. The caves are called Rosh HaNikra and are reached by descending into the caves by cable car.
Visiting Safed on a Galilee Tour
Safed is a city perched on a hill at an elevation of 900 meters above sea level. It is the Galilee’s highest city and looks down on stunning scenic countryside. The high elevation gives Safed a unique climate where summers are warm and it can even snow in winter. Safed is one of Israel’s four Holy cities and it is the main center and birthplace of Kabbalah, otherwise known as mystical Judaism. At the bottom of the city is the ancient Safed cemetery with the graves of many holy rabbis and at the top of the city is the Citadel or Metsuda which dates back to the Crusaders. Galilee tours to Safed usually stop at the famous synagogues of the city including the Ashkenazi HaAri Synagogue where you can learn about Kabbalah and to the Sephardic HaAri Synagogue which is the city’s oldest synagogue. At the Abuhav Synagogue there is a Torah scroll from the Middle Ages and at the Arutch Synagogue there is a Holy Ark which survived an earthquake in 1837. None of the Galilee tours to Safed would be complete without exploring the artists quarter where the narrow stone streets are lined with galleries, studios and artists’ workshops.
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